Sometimes More Help is Needed
Day 29
We have a great core group of refugee resettlement volunteers. Some of our activities come off without a hitch because we’ve got experience. Some things work well simply because we have enough people sharing the load.
When things break down it is often because there are not enough people to handle the task.
With our current resettlement project we have two families of four combined into a larger family of eight. Where in the past we might have been able to get away with just a driver or two for appointments, we are starting to burn out our drivers this time around.
Whenever all family members are needed we require at least two drivers to have enough seats for everyone. If only one or two family members are needed, as in the case for medical appointments, only one driver is needed.
Medical appointments can take their toll on drivers. Often each person requires multiple visits to different doctors; public health, family doctor, specialists, dentist. Usually the family members get appointments at different days and times and each appointment can take several hours.
With a small driving team the time requirements are too high. Try to have one person do the majority of the driving and burn-out is not far behind.
This is a situation we’ve experienced before, but made much worse this time around by having a large family of eight persons. Clearly we don’t have enough driving support at the moment.
What skills do you need to drive refugees to appointments? There are three I would consider to be crucial.
- Calendar management.
- Comfort speaking to someone who may not understand your language,
and/or - Comfort traveling in silence.
Calendar management is important to make sure you’re available when they need help. Timing is important so that you’re picking them up with enough slack in the schedule to get the appropriate family members in your car or van and to the appointment on time.
Speaking to someone who may not understand your language and traveling in silence are two sides of the same coin. I think it’s beneficial to talk while you drive even though those in the car don’t understand. They are hearing spoken English from a friendly person. If that’s too weird for you, then you should be comfortable with the opposite, saying nothing.
If you are OK doing these things, and you can give up a few hours of your time every once in a while then helping out on the resettlement transportation team might be a good fit for you.
(By the way, if you’re in the Waukesha area while reading this, and you’d be willing to drive we could use your help. Just comment below with information on how to contact you.)
I am enjoying your website – the day-to-day details of helping new refugees is informative in a unique way.
Forgive me, but I look for glitches in the system, so these can be ironed out and future efforts can go more smoothly. One apparent point of disconnect has to do with your current post, and the number of refugees in your current resettlement project.
I rechecked your earlier posts, and all it says is that you agreed to accept a larger group than usual – 8 people – because they were closely-related. Yet this has caused complications due to the size of your volunteer force.
I understand that your efforts will be focused on increasing the number of volunteers, particularly drivers, as this will be the optimal solution at this point in this resettlement case. But to aid in future resettlements, especially for those new communities who are thinking of starting refugee assistance, it would be helpful to know more about the “acceptance” stage of the process – specifically, who (what organization? what person/administrator/volunteer?) asked you to take this larger group? How do you find out who will arrive, and when? More details of any type concerning this aspect of resettlement would also be appreciated.
Thank you in advance for any additional information you may be able to provide.
I think you are doing an excellent job with the refugee resettlement that you are describing in this blog. This is how new Americans should be welcomed!
Sarah, thanks for your comments. Since we’re repeat resettlers we also look for ways to improve the process going forward. Sometimes that is internal (our team) and sometimes external (the organizations we work with). Education goes a long way to smoothing the entire effort.
To your question about the “acceptance” stage, we are working with Lutheran Social Services (LSS), the local group in our area that accepts refugees from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS). LSS in Milwaukee is receiving a lot of families this summer. They wanted to keep this larger family unit together and thought that with our experience we’d be able to handle it well. We agreed and accepted the challenge. This is not something a new resettlement team should try on their first attempt.
As for finding out who will arrive and when, this goes two ways. We could say that we’re ready to take on a resettlement project first and then when an appropriate family arrives we’d get a copy of their biography and have at least a few weeks to a few months to prepare. I’d generally recommend that way.
The other way is that LSS is notified that a family is coming, but they don’t have any volunteers so they start looking for someone who can take over based on the biography they have already received. This is more difficult on the resettlement team simply because the arrival date could be just days away, or if you’re lucky, a couple weeks.
For us, on this case, we had less than a week to put something together. We knew the size of the family first and then the family makeup within just a few days of arrival. We had to scramble to put together a team and make initial arrangements. But again, we’re experienced at this, so we felt confident that we could make it work. And, for the most part, it has gone quite well.